Iconclastic Controversy in the Middle Ages | Church History

In the eighth and ninth centuries AD, a controversy arose, especially within the Eastern Orthodox Church, regarding the use of icons in religious worship and instruction. An icon is a representation of Jesus, Mary, the saints, or angels on a flat surface—either as a painting or a mosaic. Those who upheld the religious use of icons came to be known as iconodules, i.e., “lovers of images.” Those who decried the religious use of icons came to be known as iconoclasts, or “smashers of images.” The most heated debate and actions of the controversy took place between 726 and 843.

From the time Alexander the Great conquered eastern Europe, western Asia, and northern Africa in the fourth century BC; Greek art and culture spread throughout his empire. Hero worship and art depicting heroes were common in the empire and remained in practice even after the Romans conquered the Greeks. When Eastern Christians depicted their own heroes in art and incorporated that art into their worship and education, Jews and Muslims interpreted this practice as idolatry. Byzantine Emperor, Leo III, believed the rise of Islam and Muslim invasions were God’s punishment for Christian idolatry and issued edicts in 726 and 730 forbidding the religious use of icons and calling for their destruction. The reaction from iconodules, especially among the monks and laypeople, was fierce and sometimes violent. Leo III deposed, exiled, and replaced Germanus, the iconodule Patriarch of Constantinople, as part of his quelling of the unrest in the capital. 

Monk and theologian, John of Damascus, who was considered the last of the Church Fathers in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, wrote the iconodules’ most comprehensive and systematic work defending the use of icons. In response to the accusation of idolatry, John explained that λατρεία (lat-REE-uh) is the highest form of worship and is reserved for God alone. Iconodules, he said, do not worship icons in this sense. However, there is a form of veneration, lower than worship, called προσκύνεσις (pross-KOO-ness-iss), and this veneration, he claimed, is appropriate for icons. In response to the accusation of breaking the Second Commandment about not making graven images, iconodules reminded iconoclasts that God had chosen to use a serpent on Moses’s staff to stop a plague in Numbers 21:4-8 and graven cherubim to cover and protect the Ark of the Covenant in the Tabernacle and Temple. Iconodules explained that the Old Testament prohibition against making images was only temporary until the incarnation. Iconodule arguments also included stories of icons’ speaking, moving, healing, and performing miracles. Iconoclasts rejected those stories as fiction, and both sides claimed their positions more accurately reflected a proper understanding of the human and divine natures of Jesus Christ. 

Byzantine Emperor, Constantine V, vigorously continued his father’s campaign against icons and convened an iconoclastic synod in Constantinople in 754, which he claimed to be ecumenical. The synod concluded that those who worshiped icons were guilty of Christological errors, and the only valid icon of Christ is the Eucharist. This iconoclastic trend continued among the emperors until the Byzantine Empress Irene turned the tide in favor of the iconodules. She replaced high-ranking officials with iconodules, and convened an iconodule council, which history remembers as the Council of Nicæa II in 787. Unlike its 754 predecessor, this council did include representatives of the Pope and of the Bishops of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The council destroyed the documents associated with the previous iconoclast synod and pronounced the errant synod’s decisions invalid. 

There were still two more shifts in the debate before its intensity waned in the mid ninth century. In the East; Emperors Leo V, Michael II, and Theophilus pushed the Byzantine Empire and Eastern Church back in the direction of iconoclasm by reiterating the 754 Synod of Constantinople’s decisions. In the West, the new Carolingian Christians of Frankish origin, were coming into power and also took a moderate iconoclast position. They believed Eastern Christians were worshiping, not merely venerating, the icons. Thus, the Carolingian theologians, especially Theodulf of Orleans in his Caroline Books, spoke out against the iconodules. The Roman Pope Hadrian, however, took a moderate iconodule position, resulting in a rivalry in the West between the Carolingians and Rome that broke out over the same controversy that had so recently beset the East. The final shift in Constantinople came thanks to the Byzantine Empress Theodora, who convoked one more synod in Constantinople in 843, which revived the decisions of the Council of Nicæa II and proclaimed an annual celebration, to be held every March 11, called the Feast of Orthodoxy in the Byzantine Traditions. The feast celebrates the end of the icon controversy, and the use of icons in religious contexts of worship and instruction continues among the Eastern Orthodox Church today.

  1.  Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 449. John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes (New York: Fordham University Press, 1979), 42.
  2.  The worship of icons was forbidden by the first edict in 726. See Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 456. The destruction of icons was called for in the second edict in public places and churches. See Harlie Kay Gallatin, “The Eastern Church” in Introduction to the History of Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 256.
  3.  Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 456.
  4.  John of Damascus, On the Divine Images: Three Apologies Against Those Who Attack the Divine Images (Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 1980).
  5.  The Roman Catholic Church tends to use the term δουλεία instead of προσκύνεσις, but both terms have the same meaning.
  6.  Derek Cooper, Twenty Questions That Shaped World Christian History (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), 126.
  7.  Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 451, 455, 461.
  8.  Williston Walker, et al. A History of the Christian Church, fourth edition (New York: MacMillan, 1985), 231, 233. See also the decisions of the Synod of Constantinople (754) as portrayed in the notes of the Council of Nicæa II in 787.
  9.  Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 458.
  10.  Irene was the widow of Emperor Leo IV, whose iconoclasm was subdued; and she was the mother of Constantine VI, for whom she ruled as regent (780-97) and then sole empress (802). Irene was eventually removed and exiled in 802 for her extremism. See Philip Schaff, History of the Christian Church: Volume Four—Medieval Christianity, A.D. 590-1073 (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1910), 459.
  11.  This was formally announced at a council held in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople in 815. See Williston Walker, et al. A History of the Christian Church, fourth edition (New York: MacMillan, 1985), 233; Justo González, A History of Christian Thought, vol. 2, From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation, revised edition (Nashville: Abingdon, 1987), 199; and Harlie Kay Gallatin, “The Eastern Church” in Introduction to the History of Christianity (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002), 258.
  12.  Derek Cooper, Twenty Questions That Shaped World Christian History (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2015), 133.
  13.  Justo González, A History of Christian Thought, vol. 2, From Augustine to the Eve of the Reformation, revised edition (Nashville: Abingdon, 1987), 199.